Adi Shankaracharya's Sublime Mangalacharan

In Sanskrit literature, there is a long-standing tradition of mangalacharan (auspicious invocation) at the beginning of a text. All the Upanishads have their own mangalacharan. If any undertaking is commenced without a mangalacharan, there remains the apprehension of encountering obstacles. Writing "Shri Ganeshaya Namah" atop a book is also indeed a mangalacharan. Yet, prior to the Brahmasutra Shariraka Bhashya of the revered commentator Bhagavan Adi Shankaracharya, there is no mangalacharan.

The devatas (celestial deities) place obstacles in the path of tattvajnana (knowledge of reality); they think, "Stepping upon our heads, this person will rise above us." He will go beyond. He will transcend. Nistraigunya (transcending the three gunas). So they begin to create impediments. And then, Vedanta is the very culmination of tattvajnana! When a man begins to strive for brahmajnana (knowledge of Brahman), the devatas interpose obstacles, thinking, "He seeks to surpass us; stop him." If they instill a sense of importance in the objects experienced through the senses, the devatas presiding within the senses have effectively raised an impediment. Vedanta is the contemplation of that which sits behind the senses, that which peers through the casement of the senses, that which illumines the senses, and that chidakasha (space of pure consciousness) within which the senses themselves appear! And the senses behold external objects. Thus, so that a sense of importance is not attributed to external objects, a mangalacharan is necessary. Such is shishtachara (the conduct of the wise), and such is the shruti (revealed scripture) rooted in this very conduct. And the revered Bhashyakara is foremost among the wise. He is setting out to demonstrate that this pratyak-chaitanya (inner conscious Self), the Atma-tattva (principle of the Self), is by its very nature eternally pure, conscious, and liberated from all objects, all senses, all devatas, all vrittis (mental modifications), and all the disturbances caused by them. He is proceeding to expound the unassailable, undisturbed firmness of the Atma-deva (divine Self). There is no disturbance whatsoever in Atma-deva; the Atma-deva is entirely free from disturbance. There is no obstacle, no impediment, no adverse consequence. It is this truth he is going to establish. This Brahman-principle, non-different from the pratyak-chaitanya, is shining radiantly, brilliantly, luminously within the intellect of Bhagavan Shankaracharya.

The Brahman-principle, non-different from the inner conscious Self, is shining radiantly, brilliantly, luminously within the intellect of Bhagavan Shankaracharya..

People utter words denoting auspiciousness believing that that is auspicious, but here, having Himself become auspiciousness, surrounded by auspiciousness, filled with auspiciousness, suffused with auspiciousness, grounded in auspiciousness, immersed in auspiciousness, and permeated with auspiciousness within and without, past and future, endowed with the direct realization of the all-auspicious Brahmadeva Himself, the revered Bhashyakara commenced this commentary: 'ब्रह्म तं मंगलं परम्' ("Brahman is that supreme auspiciousness"). What greater mangalacharan could there ever be?